J.SKUBA, MFA, PhD, Principal

For over fifty years, J. Skuba has been on an exploratory path, working as an Ornamental Horticulturist, Art School Professor, Industrial Designer, Builder, and Garden Designer: All devoted to hone a skilled aesthetic eye. Many years have been spent observing and understanding Nature in all its forms and moods, for Nature is the language of the garden.

There are many aesthetic and manual skills required to create and build gardens in the Japanese way. The depth of understanding the nuances of design tenets is of utmost importance in preserving the Sukiya way by uniting architecture and gardens.

Japanese Garden building combines many different skill sets: Selecting and Setting of Stone, Constructing topographic features, Water-Shaping, Planting selections appropriate to the hardiness zone, and Mapping out long term Plant care and maintaining the garden. The garden design schematic leaves an opening for on-site creativity to take place. The actual creation takes place in the field as 99% hands-on work, assembling all the elements of plants, stone, and water into a coherent work of living art.

Skilled care and maintenance of Japanese Gardens is THE most vital aspect over time in sustaining the garden.

J.Skuba's gardens have been featured in Architectural Digest magazine. He is a contributor to articles in Sukiya Living: The Journal of Japanese Gardening.